Blackhawks look checked out in sloppy loss to Blue Jackets

It sure looked as if the Chicago Blackhawks started their Olympic break the second Monday night’s game against the San Jose Sharks ended. They never seemed to get on the same page throughout their 3-0 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Too many turnovers and questionable decisions led to an overall disjointed effort. Playing with 16 skaters for much of the game didn’t help either.

Things got a little better after a rather lousy first period, but the Blue Jackets were never in any danger of losing. The Blackhawks were held to only nine high-danger scoring chances on their way to being shut out for the fourth time this season, and the first time since Dec. 13 against the Detroit Red Wings.

“There was a level of urgency and alertness that we didn’t have that we need to have,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. “Every game matters, man. There were too many guys that didn’t have their urgency level. You’re not always going to feel your best, but you’ve got to have the urgency level.

“I can’t say that’s happened very often with this team, to be honest with you. It wasn’t like we didn’t work; I’m not saying that. But that little level of extra urgency to make sure that you’re either corralling a pass, handling a pass, driving the net, or winning a battle. Those things weren’t quite there.”

Blackhawks Suffer a Pair of Injuries

While the Blackhawks' overall play wasn’t inspiring, things were made worse with a pair of injuries. Defenseman Wyatt Kaiser left the game at 7:19 of the opening period. Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski was hit from behind by Sam Rinzel and fell right into Kaiser’s left knee. This sure didn’t look good as he put very little weight on the injured leg on his way to the locker room. Blashill said after the game that Kaiser will be out “a little bit.” At least there are no games to miss for the first three weeks of that “little bit.”

Early in the second period, Colton Dach left the game after he felt some discomfort from this exchange with Erik Gudbranson. Blashill said his injury is minor and shouldn’t miss any time after the break.

“It’s the way it works: You get injuries in games, and you have to play shorthanded, and I just don’t think we played smart enough to handle those right,” captain Nick Foligno said. “We’ve got to be more assertive as forwards and get pucks in their end and wear them down so our D aren’t feeling under pressure. We just didn’t do that enough.”

With only five defensemen for nearly the entire game, Rinzel led all defensemen with 25:42 of ice time. Interestingly enough. Louis Crevier was the only one of the remaining defenders who didn’t get at least 20 minutes of ice time. He only got 18:44, and this is coming off getting taken off the top pairing during the third period versus San Jose.

Power Play Struggles Remain

When Connor Bedard opened the scoring against the Sharks with a power-play goal, we had hoped that would get things trending in the right direction. However, they failed to generate much on their three chances after that.

Tonight in Columbus, the Blackhawks got three power plays in the second period and failed to capitalize on any of them. The first was the worst of them all, as it took them nearly half the time to just get the puck in the zone. Less than 30 seconds after the failed attempt, Danton Heinen gave the Blue Jackets a 3-0 lead, and the game was essentially over.

In six minutes on the man advantage, the Blackhawks generated 10 shot attempts, six shots on goal, seven scoring chances, and three high-danger scoring chances. They are now 1-for-33 in their last twelve games. They will have plenty of practice time heading out of the break to try to figure out their breakouts and zone entries. Once they get the puck set up in the offensive zone, the power play looks good. However, getting the puck into said zone is a chore at times.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• The biggest example of how the team wasn’t mentally invested came on the Blue Jackets’ second goal. Ryan Donato was tripped up behind the net and was upset that no penalty was called. He got his revenge by delivering a big hit to Mason Marchment. Then he made the curious decision to head off the ice for a line change while the Blue Jackets still had possession of the puck. This gave them a brief 5-on-4, which was all they needed for Ivan Provorov to creep down into the zone and double the home team’s lead.

• Another example of the Blackhawks not being in the proper headspace: they had 18 giveaways to only three takeaways. You aren’t winning many games with that kind of differential.

• On a night that the Blackhawks were supposed to “empty the tank” before a three-week break, you just didn’t see many guys playing with that mentality. They had only 38 5-on-5 shot attempts, with 12 in both the first and second periods, and 14 in the third.

• Zach Werenski was a nightmare tonight. First, he scored the opening goal of the game to extend his personal point streak to seven games. Then, he had inadvertently injured Kaiser.  He was involved in another scary moment in the third period. He was tripped while crashing the net and made contact with Spencer Knight’s head as his skate got dangerously high. Knight was upset at the officials for not blowing the play dead right after his mask was knocked off.